Environmental phenomenon in the political thought of ancient Iran

The human perspective has a direct impact on the environment. In the modern era, man has considered himself in the place of God and has dominated the nature that has resulted in encroachment upon its privacy and disruption of its cycle. During antiquity, man always defined himself within the universe and had firm belief that the cycle of nature could not and should not be disrupted. The manner of man’s interactions with nature and the environment has been varied and sometimes contradictory in different periods. The existence of a bio-centric view and the acceptance of the principle that man is part of nature and his life depends on the surroundings, has led to behavioral occurrence based on the respect for nature and the environment. Ancient Iranians, too, as one of the world’s first civilizations, have always been at the forefront of human and environmental issues. The laws governing the ancient world were based on belief patterns, and the governing policies of that time were based on the notion of the protection of the environmental elements of soil, water, plants and animals. In this article, apart from examining the bio-centric perspective on the remaining myths from ancient Iran, as well as exploring the sources of Zoroastrianism and the Avesta, the relationship between the policies of kings and rulers and environmental ideas is discussed. This article shows that ancient Iranians with a bio-centric attitude and using religious propositions tried to satisfy the four elements of nature and emphasized its preservation.